Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Anglicans Ablaze: Proposals for the Reform of the Anglican Church in North America: The Episcopate

By Robin G. Jordan

Anglicans have historically been divided over the necessity of bishops to the life of the church. The English Reformers found no support for any particular form of church government in the Bible, either for episcopacy or for presbyterianism. The seventeenth century Caroline High Churchmen, while they viewed the episcopate as a divine institution, they refused to unchurch the Continental Reformed Churches because they lacked bishops. They recognized the orders and the sacraments of these Churches. The nineteenth century Tractarians and their Anglo-Catholic successors, however, had no qualms about unchurching all non-episcopal churches. They argued that episcopacy was of the essence of the church. Where there was no bishop, there was no church. This view brought them into conflict with evangelicals who like the English Reformers took the position that bishops were not absolutely essential to the existence of the church and recognized the orders and sacraments of non-episcopal churches.

For more from Robin Jordan, see:
Anglicans Ablaze: Proposals for the Reform of the Anglican Church in North America: The Episcopate

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